Episodes
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
/156/ Cosmo-Jihad ft. Darryl Li
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
Internationalism used to be a defining characteristic of the Left. Globalism is a defining characteristic of neoliberal capitalism. Both seem to be characteristic of Islamist jihadism. How did Islamist reaction become globalised? How far does Islamist globalism connect to radical legacies of Third Worldism, internationalism and radical solidarity? Political anthropologist Darryl Li, author of The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity joins us to discuss the transnational history of jihad over the last 30 years.
Reading:
The Universal Enemy - Book Forum, The Immanent Frame, Various Authors
Friday Oct 23, 2020
Friday Oct 23, 2020
On the Covid election.
Thursday Oct 22, 2020
Excerpt: /155/ Aufhebonus Bonus ft. Benjamin Moser
Thursday Oct 22, 2020
Thursday Oct 22, 2020
Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast
We start off by discussing the beheading of a French teacher for having shown his pupils the Mohammed cartoons in a class on free speech. Then we discuss your points, questions and criticisms from September and October (on class politics, antifa, Covid, unemployment and more). Finally, 25 minutes of bonus content from our chat with Sontag biographer Benjamin Moser on the 1619 Project, identity politics, literature, and cosmopolitanism and empire.
For the rest of the original episode with Moser, that's number 147: Podbean / Patreon
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Excerpt: /154/ A Reasonably Important Election ft. Alex Gourevitch
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
On the Covid election.
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
/153/ Repubblica di Bunga ft. David Broder
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
On the country of the future.
Italy has stagnated for 30 years, becoming a neoliberal gerontocracy with crumbling infrastructure (sound familiar?). Worse, it's a country without a Left. How did the populist right come to triumph? What is the relationship between high emigration and hostility to immigration? And how were the seeds sown 30 years ago with the collapse of the First Republic, Europeanisation, and Berlusconi's rise? Is there now a possibility of 'Italexit'?
Readings:
First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy, David Broder, Verso
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Excerpt: /152/ I Can't Believe It's Not Weimar ft. David Broder
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
On why anti-fascism is a problem.
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We Don’t Live in Weimar Germany, David Broder, Jacobin
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The Trap The Democrats Walked Right Into, Andrew Sullivan
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The End of Anti-Fascism, David Broder, Jacobin
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What Is Trump?, Dylan Riley, NLR
Sunday Oct 04, 2020
[UNLOCKED] /146/ Class is Cancelled ft. Ben Tippet
Sunday Oct 04, 2020
Sunday Oct 04, 2020
On class.
Class as an idea and an identity is now supposedly redundant. It’s been replaced by conflicts between generations and transcended by more up-to-date identities linking people together through common experiences of victimhood and inequality, rather than along lines related to production or power. Or is it? We discuss these questions with Ben Tippett, author of Split: Class Divides Uncovered to find out whether class still has any place in society and theory (spoiler: it does).
Reading:
- Split: What Love Island Tells Us About Culture & Class In Modern Britain, Ben Tippet, The Quietus (Excerpt from book)
Split: Class Divides Uncovered, Ben Tippet, Pluto Press
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Excerpt: /151/ Reading Club: Full Employment
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Episode for patrons $10+. Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
This month we discuss Polish economist Michal Kalecki's landmark essay, "Political Aspects of Full Employment". This follows on from our recent free episode, 'It's Not Robots, It's Capitalism' (ep 149) focusing on unemployment.
Kalecki anticipated both the Keynesian postwar settlement as well as its undoing, and the neoliberalism that followed. We focus on how Kalecki introduces the question of political authority into economics.
For reference, the next five Reading Clubs have already been announced: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41524278